Earnings Labs

Newmont Corporation (NEM)

Q3 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 26, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Newmont Q3 2017 Earnings Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Ms. Jessica Largent, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Largent, the floor is yours, ma'am.

Jessica Largent - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Newmont's third quarter conference call. Joining us on the call today are Gary Goldberg, President and Chief Executive Officer; Nancy Buese, Chief Financial Officer; and Tom Palmer, Chief Operating Officer. They and other members of our executive team will be available to answer questions at the end of the call. Turning to slide 2. Before we go further, please take a moment to review the cautionary statement shown here and refer to our SEC filings which can be found on our website at newmont.com. And now I'll turn it over to Gary on slide 3.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thanks, Jess. And thank you all for joining us this morning. Before I start, I'd like to take a moment to introduce our new Vice President of Investor Relations, Jessica Largent. Jess joined Newmont in 2015 and most recently served as our senior director of planning, working closely with Investor Relations. Before that, she led the IR function at Turquoise Hill Resources. She brings 12 years of mining industry experience to her new role and we're excited to have her in this key leadership position. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Meredith Bandy. Meredith will be leaving Newmont after three successful years leading our IR function. I know you join me in welcoming Jess and thanking Meredith for her many contributions and wishing them both the best of luck. Turning to results, I'm pleased to report another strong quarter at Newmont including reaching commercial production at our Tanami Expansion project. Tom, Nancy and I look forward to presenting the team's latest work to execute our strategy, which includes delivering consistently superior operational performance, maintaining a global portfolio of long-life assets and progressing profitable expansions and prospects on four continents and living up to our commitment to lead the gold sector in profitability and sustainability. Turning for more details on slide 4. We delivered exceptional results this quarter keeping us on track to meet full-year cost and production guidance. This performance is the result of ongoing discipline in improving costs and efficiency and investing in growth across the cycle as production from our newest mines, Merian and Long Canyon, offsets lower production at our more mature operations. We were also honored to be recognized as the mining industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the third consecutive year. Superior operational execution gives us the means to…

Nancy K. Buese - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

(10:20) had a positive quarter with robust cash flow generation and a stronger balance sheet. Slide 11 covers financial highlights. Revenue improved 5% to (10:33) driven by higher sales from our new operations at Long Canyon and Merian. Adjusted net income was $183 million or $0.35 per diluted share. And adjusted EBITDA was $653 million. We improved our quarterly operating cash flow by 35% to $688 million and more than doubled our free cash flow to nearly $500 million ending the quarter with $3 billion of cash. Turning to slide 12 to review our earnings per share in more detail. Third quarter GAAP net income from continuing operations was $0.39 per share, up 22% from the prior year quarter. Primary adjustments included a $0.01 gain related to the sale of equity interests, a $0.01 net gain related to the acquisition of Boddington in 2009 and a $0.02 gain related to certain tax items primarily evaluation allowance on deferred tax assets. Taking these adjustments into account, we delivered adjusted net income of $0.35 per share. Turning to capital priorities on slide 13. Operational execution, capital discipline and a strong portfolio continue to give us the platform to execute our priorities including investing in profitable growth, returning cash to shareholders and maintaining an industry-leading balance sheet. We continue to self-fund profitable projects allowing us to grow margins, extend mine life and improve reserve quality. We are also returning more cash to shareholders. This week we announced our third quarter dividend of $0.075 per share which is up 50% from the prior year quarter. In July, we fully repaid $575 million of convertible notes further reducing debt and simplifying our capital structure. Taking this into account and with the free cash flow generated during the quarter, our total liquidity is nearly $6 billion and net debt to EBITDA is at 0.4 times. With that, I'll hand the call over to Tom Palmer to cover operational highlights starting on slide 14.

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thank you, Nancy. Shifting our focus to our regional performance. In North America, our teams are delivering solid results and advancing profitable expansions. In South America, we're recovering from difficult weather earlier this year and expecting a stronger second half. And we're also investing in growth at Yanacocha. In Australia, we continued to set record for mill throughput and recently reached commercial production at our Tanami Expansion. And in Africa, we continued to deliver exceptional results primarily due to Full Potential improvements in throughput and recovery and remain on track with our Ahafo expansion projects. Turning to more on North America on slide 15. Our operations are delivering strong results and have produced about 1.7 million ounces of gold year-to-date. This puts us on track to offset the deficit caused by a slide at the Silverstar mine in late 2016. We're now working to de-weight Silverstar as a first step in gaining access to the ore that was covered by the slide. And this production represents upside for 2018 and 2019. At Carlin, we're delivering strong second half results. A successful ground rehabilitation allows us to ramp up production at Leeville. Our Northwest Exodus expansion also continues on course and we recently commissioned power and ventilation systems. Some of you visited our Nevada operations last month and saw the semi-autonomous mining equipment at work in Leeville. We'll also use this technology at Northwest Exodus which is being designed to support autonomous operations. Long Canyon and Cripple Creek & Victor are also performing well and we've accelerated leach pad placements at both operations. Finally, our new Twin Underground mine is underway. Grid development began a month ahead of schedule and we mined first ore in August. This project is expected to improve mill recovery, extend processing life at Twin and reach…

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thank you, Tom. Turning to slide 20. Newmont is anchored in four regions where we have the stability and resources we need to continue investing over time. More than 70% of our production and about the same amount of our reserves are located in the United States and Australia. We continue to fund the high-margin projects to sustain future production and improve our return on capital employed. These factors position us to maintain stable returns over the next decade and beyond. We continue to optimize and deliver profitable projects. Turning to slide 21. For the past three years, we built Merian and the first phase of Long Canyon on time and 20% below budget. We reached commercial production at our Tanami Expansion this quarter and will finish Northwest Exodus next year, both expansions add profitable production and service platforms for further exploration. We also announced decisions to fund four expansion projects this year that will improve profitability and extend mine life at Ahafo, Twin Creeks and Yanacocha. Taken together, the nine projects we've approved over the last three years will add annual gold production of up to 1.7 million ounces at all-in sustaining cost of about $750 per ounce for the first five years and generate an average internal rate of return above 20%. Turning to our project pipeline on slide 22. Our pipeline is among the best in the gold sector in terms of depth and capital efficiency. And it gives us the means to maintain steady production while growing our margins and our reserves. Projects included in our outlook are the current and sustaining capital projects you see here, Morrison in Australia, Northwest Exodus and Twin Underground in Nevada and the Subika Underground and Ahafo Mill Expansion in Ghana. Midterm projects that will improve our outlook are shown…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question we have will come from John Bridges of JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

I was just wondering, you mentioned the Morrison layback and that presumably is going to add ounces to the reserve base next year. Could you give us a bit of color on what ounces we can expect from that, maybe costs and maybe if there's a difference to the recovery that we've been seeing from the existing ore reserve there?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yeah. Sure, John. In terms of Morrison, and we haven't yet approved it. It's a sustaining capital project. So, basically, it's about extending mine life. And we've been going through a process. In fact, we delayed approval probably about three or four months, did additional drilling, really focused on metallurgical testing. Tom and I were just out there a couple weeks ago and had a chance to kind of go through where they're at with the project. And the results look to have confirmed what we would have expected from metallurgical recoveries, which is good. And as we get further information together on that, that's one we can provide an update on in our December update when we have Alex Bates, the Regional Vice President, out at Investor Day to provide an update.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

So the recoveries are going to be lower than we've seen previously?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

No, no, no. It confirmed we'd see good recoveries there. That's what we wanted to confirm and we see that coming through fine.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay, fine. And then we've seen the first reserve reporting last night. How are you feeling about the reserve exercise that you're busy going through at the moment? Just wondered where you think you could be adding reserves this year.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Well, it's still early days as we look around where we've been focusing. We had a target, I think, we put out to the market in terms of about 3 million ounces by the drill bit. And we continue to see how that delivers both at Tanami where we see potential, Subika and potentially also down at Yanacocha.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Yanacocha.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

I've got Grigore here in the background whispering at me. Merian as well.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. So Yanacocha would be the Quecher Main material coming in, would it?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yeah. It could be more resource there with the Chaquicocha at this stage.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Oh, of course. You were having some success with another layback there, right?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Correct. In terms of looking at it, though that's not included in Quecher Main at this stage.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. And you were reiterating that the sulfides were coming on well. Any new developments there?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Nothing new. Tom and the team – actually, Dean Gehring will be providing an update at the Investor Day in December.

John Bridges - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay, cool. Looking forward to it. Thanks a lot. Thanks, guys. Good luck.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thanks, John. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Next we have Michael Dudas of Vertical Research.

Michael S. Dudas - Vertical Research Partners, LLC.

Analyst

Good morning, everybody, and welcome, Jessica. First question is – Gary, we're going to get a lot more information on the long-term outlook in December. But how do you see going into the budgeting for 2018 and beyond, any cost inflation, vendors starting to raise prices, offsets to what Full Potential could provide from an operating basis to maintain the strong cost performance you guys have had through the downturn?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Now, Michael, as you say, Full Potential continues to be a core to the business in looking at both efficiency and cost improvements. And I think with the focus and what the team has been working on here as we pull together our 2018 business plan, we'll be able to demonstrate that with the guidance in December as we present it. In terms of inflationary pressures, the key things we keep an eye on; obviously, the Aussie dollar is one element that we don't control directly and we see that flow through. As gold prices come up, that's come up a little bit. But that's pretty much kept in line there with the price. Oil price, it's been bouncing around. We've been using $55. We continue in our outlook going forward to be pretty much in that same ballpark. I think the only place – as we keep an eye is labor inflation and watching turnover as the leading indicator on that both in Australia and parts of North America. It's not any sort of a big jump up, but it's one we're keeping an eye on. Remember, overall, our focus. We build in in our planning process 3% a year inflation into the plans as the teams are developing their plans out for the first five years. So 3% each year. And the objective of the Full Potential effort is to at least offset or more than offset that 3% inflation. So in terms of other areas, mining equipment and supplies, we've extended our agreements, so not seeing anything in a major way there inflationary-wise. And likewise on the commodity inputs.

Michael S. Dudas - Vertical Research Partners, LLC.

Analyst

In the trip out to the mines in Nevada last month, I enjoyed working the joystick on the semi-autonomous equipment. As you look forward and you're developing expansion to the mine plans or new mine plans, how much greater those types of equipment and concepts are going to be to put forth in the new generation of mines or to help for Newmont as you move forward?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yeah, I'll take a brief shot. And then I'll have Tom Palmer give an update because he's got an extensive background in designing autonomous mines and give a little bit more background. But I think in terms of designing mines, it's clearly all part of the technology that we look at. We look at the value it delivers. You look at what we're developing at Northwest Exodus where we've allowed for. And we'll have autonomous equipment in use there. We have it already in use at Leeville right next door. So that's easy technology to transfer and at Subika. It's not limited by location. We're looking at Subika in Ghana as another place to use the autonomous equipment. And a good example there; you can put operation of that equipment, as you saw, up on the surface. And you don't have to go through the travel time back and forth to the face (31:24). You don't have to have the same clearing procedures after a blast. So it leads to higher productivity. And these are things we'll look at really at all of our operations. On the surface side, I'll hand it over to Tom to give a little bit of background.

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yeah, thanks, Gary. I think my experience with this technology and automation is, first and foremost, it's fundamentally safer. You're taking human beings out of the process and the system runs without some of that risk. And to build on Gary's comment, the other thing it does, it can take people out of an environment, say, an underground environment where they're not exposed to the same level of things like diesel particulates. So there's a health improvement there as well as safety, first and foremost. In terms of the design of our mines, our underground mines going forward, as we talked about with Northwest Exodus, are designed to accommodate autonomous equipments. So we've got the option to bring that in. The surface mines, it's really something you look at as you go forward. My experience with this type of equipment in the iron ore industry is there was a capital offset when you're building a new mine to bring that equipment in. And the cost of running that equipment is still something that needs to catch up. So retrofitting or introducing autonomous equipment into existing mines is still something that we're looking at and considering. But there's still some work that the industry has to do to have a cost improvement that'll allow you to do that retrofit. So we're keeping an eye on those developments.

Michael S. Dudas - Vertical Research Partners, LLC.

Analyst

Well, I trust Caterpillar is working hard on that from their end as well. I appreciate your thoughts, gentlemen. Thank you.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thanks, Michael.

Operator

Operator

Next we have David Haughton of CIBC. Please go ahead.

David Haughton - CIBC World Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Good morning, Gary, Nancy and Tom. Thank you for the update. Now just going over to Quecher Main. Can you just give us a bit of an outline about the throughput you expect, the grade and whether the material would be processed via the heap leach or the mill and what most of the CapEx would be dedicated to? Thank you.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

David, we just happen to have RSVP here. And I'm going to introduce Dean Gehring who took over now about four months ago as the Regional Vice President and I'll have him handle that question. Dean.

David Haughton - CIBC World Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Thank you.

Dean Gehring - Newmont Mining Corp.

Analyst

Okay. Thanks, Gary. David, it's a good question. Quecher Main is just largely an extension of what we've been doing at Yanacocha for a number of years. Most of the capital is dedicated toward just building a new leach pad facility. We'll largely use existing equipment. The grades are similar to what we've been mining before in that area. And it's reflected in our guidance and some of the things that Gary said earlier about what we expect to see in terms of production. So it's all going to be oxide leach production. There isn't anything that's going to our gold mill.

David Haughton - CIBC World Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay, so all oxide leach. And what do you think the stacking rate might be there?

Dean Gehring - Newmont Mining Corp.

Analyst

Well, we put in about 16-meter lifts. We'll be doing two a year. So you'll see about 32 meters of stacking per year.

David Haughton - CIBC World Markets, Inc.

Analyst

What does that translate into tons, please?

Dean Gehring - Newmont Mining Corp.

Analyst

I have to look that up because if I gave it to you in tons, then it wouldn't necessarily tell you what it was in meters. So different people ask the question differently.

David Haughton - CIBC World Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Because I'll tell you how I model it. I model it on tons, grade, recovery and that gets me ounces. I don't know what meter lifts mean.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

But I think at the end of the day, David, you can count – it's going to add about 200,000 ounces a year on a 100% basis once it starts production later in 2019.

David Haughton - CIBC World Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Now maybe one for Nancy. Debt retirement in the quarter, you still got $3 billion of cash. Have you any thoughts of additional debt repayment going forward?

Nancy K. Buese - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yeah, David. As we look at our maturities, we've got one set coming due in 2019 and a bit coming due in 2022. We continuously do liability management work around those tranches. And at this point in time, with where those are trading, it does not make sense for us to do early retirement. But we'll continue to evaluate that. Our current plan would be to pay those tranches off with cash on hand at the time that they mature.

David Haughton - CIBC World Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thank you very much for that.

Operator

Operator

The next question we have will come from Tanya Jakusconek of Scotiabank.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Good morning, everybody.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Good morning, Tanya.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Gary, questions for you, if I could. Thank you very much for the Tanami power project that you're talking about. Just wanted to get a little bit more information there. I know you're mentioning going from diesel to natural gas. Can you just remind me what your power costs are currently now, where you think they'll go and what percentage of your cost structure is power?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yes. I'm having folks help draw that up here because I don't have that at the tip of my tongue. So let's find that and I'll come back here in a moment.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

All those mines and you don't have them there? It's getting -

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

We have them there. I just don't have it in my memory banks at the top.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Okay. Well, then maybe, Gary, another question for you. Just coming back to Twin Creeks. I know we talked about negotiations with Barrick and I know I ask you every quarter. But December is coming. It's not too far away. How are the negotiations going on trying to resolve an amicable contract between the two to get the mineralization through your Twin Creek autoclave?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

No. We continue to talk with our partner there about what the potential would be for the extension of this agreement. We're also working through as they're assessing different expansion plans and how to take the next step of expansion effectively and efficiently at Turquoise Ridge. So that work continues.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

And I think they mentioned on their call that you're going to make a decision on that in January of next year. Is that correct?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

I believe that's what they're targeting is a January capital decision on that expansion.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Okay. And just coming back if we have those and maybe just also the capital. What are we talking about in terms of the Tanami power from 35,000 feet, just sort of the range?

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

I'm going to hand over to Tom. I believe he's got both the cost number in terms of power costs and he can – we'll give more detail on the capital as we get a little bit closer to approval, which will be by the end of this year. But over on the power.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thanks, Gary. Good morning, Tanya. The roughly $0.25 kilowatt hour power cost today, diesel-fired power stations at Tanami. And with gas coming in, gas-fired power stations, you can expect to see in the order of 20% improvement there. So other key factors are that the reliability – we won't to see those same issues that we experienced earlier this year with diesel supply and quite a significant improvement in carbon emissions as a result of the cleaner fuel source. So I'm very pleased about that. In terms of -

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

And what percentage of – yeah, and what percentage of your cost is -

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

It makes up about 25% of our costs...

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Okay.

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

...power generation.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Okay. So that would be the impact from that.

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yeah.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

And you could get that in, I think Gary said, in about 18 months once the decision is made.

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Yeah. Once we got the approval to proceed, we dropped the – there's a north-south power line that runs up through Alice Springs in Australia. So you connect to that and then run across to the mine site. So that's the order of a 400, 450 kilometer pipeline. And we'll run that right through to the underground mine at DBS and then connect to power stations. If you recall, the processing plant and the underground mine are around 45 kilometers apart. So (39:45) connecting power lines and join those two up. So it's around that time to – critical path is to sink that power line. So you can imagine the conditions up there through the dry and wet season. You've got to sequence around that. So that's sort of timeframe to get it into place.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

So you're talking at least towards the end of 2019, early 2020?

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Possibly a bit earlier, Tanya.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Okay.

Tom Palmer - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

All going well, the weather looks after us; I'd see that we'd be up and running a bit earlier than that.

Tanya Jakusconek - Scotiabank

Analyst

Okay, so in the 2019 frame. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. I look forward to getting that capital number.

Operator

Operator

The next question we have will come from Lucas Pipes of FBR Capital Markets. Lucas N. Pipes - FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Hey. Good morning, everybody.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Good morning. Lucas N. Pipes - FBR Capital Markets & Co.: Gary, I had a bigger picture question for you. And yesterday, I was on a Freeport call that lasted very long about the issues they're dealing with. Obviously, you have exited Indonesia, but it's not just Indonesia. I think when you look across the industry, kind of resource nationalism is a problem. And how do you think about that? Am I wrong in that assessment? And then more importantly, as you think about your portfolio longer term, is it changing the way you want to allocate capital? Thank you.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

No. Thanks for the question, Lucas. I look at it a couple of different ways. One, I think in terms of how the industry presents itself to the world from a cost standpoint. The effort to go to all-in sustaining costs was a step in the right direction to try to get a better view out to the world in terms of what the actual cost of production is. And for the most part, we've stayed very true to what that means. That hasn't necessary been the case everywhere. But I know the World Gold Council is taking another look at that approach and making sure that we get a true measure and metric of what the cost of production is out there. And not everything's represented even in all-in sustaining costs. So I think making sure we get the right view on cost out's important because the first thing people look at is what gold price is and what the cost numbers are and say they want a bigger piece of the pie. I think in terms of where we operate, I think we've got very stable regions that we operate in. That doesn't mean we're immune. I know we had the recent efforts in Western Australia to look to raise the royalty rate. And I think that's been a big process and congratulations to the team. At this stage, Alex Bates and the team, they're working with the other gold producers in Western Australia to help educate the politicians in Western Australia and the rest of the marketplace in terms of what the effect of raising royalty rates has. And this is consistent whether it's in Western Australia or anywhere else in the world. If you raise the cost of production through having higher royalty rates, it raises…

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

Thanks, Lucas.

Gary J. Goldberg - Newmont Mining Corp.

Management

And thank you, everyone, for joining our call this morning. Our team delivered another strong quarter, keeping us on track to meet production cost and capital guidance for 2017. We also continue to invest in the future with our Tanami Expansion reaching commercial production on time and budget and our Quecher Main project set to extend life at Yanacocha. Finally, we generated even stronger cash flows, giving us the means to maintain robust returns and distinguish ourselves as an industry leader in sustainability. I'll end by inviting you to join us at our Investor Day on December 6, where we'll introduce you to the rest of our regional business leaders, share our refreshed five-year outlook and bring you up to speed in how we're leveraging technology to raise our performance to the next level. Thank you for joining us and have a safe day.

Operator

Operator

And we thank you, sir, and to the rest of the management team also for your time today. Again, the conference call has now concluded. At this time, you may disconnect your lines. Thank you again. Everyone, take care and have a great day.